Entertainment Podium

Obamaites rule the Internet : “Obama the right brand!!”

Disclaimer: Entertainment Podium does not professionally endorse any candidate, Although personally, we love Senator Obama!!

Am amazed at the fact that Barack Obama is able to churn out millions of supporters on the World WIde Web. Are there more number of Internet Savvy democrats in this country? or, is it just the Obama magic? Whatever be the reason, you can see the Internet Cloud clogged up with “We love Obama” sign boards. His You-Tube channel is very popular and some videos have had more than a million users staring at them. The best part is, Most of these users are outside of the United States. If United States is an independent company and Barack Obama is a Product/Brand, It would be the most Loved, popular and profitable companies in the world, Just because Barack Obama sells like hot cup cakes!!, not only in the US of A but also globally.

Coming back to the Obamaites on the internet, they are everywhere and as election day is coming closer, they run from Pillar to (blog)post singing his glory and seeking support. However, the point to be noted here is that people do this by choice as they yearn for the change. But why do people beleive in Obama? The reason? No prizes for guessing, His charisma and his ability to empathize and relate to people from all communities.

The Verdict: Obama is the right brand ambassador for United States of America to keep the “star spangled banner” flying high in the hearts of people around the world. As for the netizens, keep rooting for the change you beleive in!!

Tags: Barack Obama, Election, Obama, President Obama, USA

Virus Protection:Top 5 safe browsing tips

What you didn’t know, could kill your computer!! The internet is a haven for people with malicious intent. They spam, spoof, hack, phish and will do anything to get their hands on your personal and financial information. How do you stop it? Here are five safe browsing tips that are relevant in the current scenario:

1. Get your computer protected by an Antivirus program from a reputed vendor. Today, there are many fake anti-spyware/antivirus programs that keep popping up on your screen telling that the computer is infected and asking you to buy a particular program. Be-aware. These are fake, scams and spywares. None of the legitimate antivirus companies resort to such tactics.  Get a good Computer Virus Protection program and update the program on a regular basis to get protection against latest threats.

2. Do not download free Music, Games, softwares or toolbars and do not install ActiveX controls from unknown websites. These sites are not secured properly and their security can be easily compromised by hackers.

3. Never-ever download an attachment from an email that comes from an unknown person. Even if the email is from your friend or relative, you can scan it with your Antivirus program.

4. Scan your computer on a regular basis. At least once a week. Most antivirus programs can schedule a scan to run automatically. Update your virus definitions and run  windows updates on a regular basis.

5. Install a Popup blocker and do not click on popups while your are on the internet, always ‘X’ out of them. 

Special Tip: When dealing with computer security don’t trust your intuition, call the support technician from your antivirus company.

Tags: Antivirus Software, Safe browsing, Virus protection, Virus Removal

Pep up your company image with a Press release

Today’s  business is all about the right branding. The first step towards creating a positive brand image is to get the news out. Get people to read about you in traditional media and internet. The easiest way to achieve this objective is through a Press Release. But not all of us can afford to employ a public relations team, fret not, Press Release Solutions comes to the rescue. Press Release Solutions helps you communicate your message to the world by writing a press release for your company and also distributing it through the right channels so that it reaches out.

With Press Release Solutions, there are many options available that can justify your need. Their basic package is a 400 word news release drafted by their experts and released to the media. They also have advanced packages to take your company news to the next level through the Internet and News Wires. Each of these packages can be customized to suit your needs and are very reasonably priced.I have worked with them in the past and found them very professional  and they gave a good value for the money i spent. So while you figure out the business part of your company, leave the PR work to the experts.

Tags: best press release, PR, Press Release, Public Relations

Video Conference - The easy way

There are certain businesses on the Internet that still amaze me. Recently, i was searching for a collaboration tool to ‘talk and work’ with one of my marketing managers in India. I stumbled upon Nefsis, a site for business to business video conferencing. After reading their promising “how it works” page, i decided to try it out. Lucky for skeptics like me, they have a video conferencing free trial  pack. The installation was very simple, but what caught and tamed the critic in me was the clarity and ease of use of this application. The best part is, you dont need any expensive equipment, it works fine with just your PC, webcam and Internet Connection. The free trial lasts 14 days, after which i have decided to purchase their reasonably priced service and take advantage of the flexibility that this wonderful service offers. Am really glad that there are still few companies on the Internet worth talking about.

Tags: chat, Collaborate, Conference, Video, Video Conferencing

Stand-up comedians profit from election fever

Wherever there is news, there is a stand-up comedian waiting to capitalize. Stand-up comedy has gained lot of popularity since the birth of web2.0 as more people are able to view, appreciate and respond to healthy comedy. Political jokes, criticism, celebrity trashing are all very popular genres of stand-up comedy. But the one that really sells right now are election and election related jokes. Barack Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin and anybody else who is feebly related to the elections have become the main targets of stand-up comedians.

One time when David Letterman played a top 10 George Bush moments video on his show, Bush reacted saying, “Any society where  people can make humor if their leaders and criticize them is a free society worth builiding.” Although  stand-up comedy is good and people enjoy it, popular stand-up comedians need to act more responsibly during the election time as they can adversely impact people’s judgement through their comedy. This is evident from the number of people who after seeing a stand-up comedy show got influenced into thinking that Sarah Palin is a big farce. Although i personally beleive that she is a big farce, thats for people to decide on their own, not for stand-up comedians to cue in!!

Tags: bush jokes, comedy, political comedy, Stand up Comedy

Google Sites

Google is on a mission, To own the internet. The latest addition to its kitty is Google Sites. This site empowers simple users to create a website in just a few clicks and taps. Just like any other product from google. simple, user-friendly and effective!! Of course, Its FREE!! They also have premium memberships with their google apps premier edition.  The best part is, it synchronizes with their other products like gmail, calendar, docs, gtalk and google grandcentral. So when Google is busy with its Internet Domination plans, you can check out Google sites through sites.google.com

Tags: google sites, Internet

Voice Chat proves useful

Voice chat in Yahoo messenger and Gtalk is becoming more useful day by day. A few months back, we used Voice chat occasionally. Now after we have started blogging, being online 24 hours a day is a necessity. And our mobile phone bills were rising as we were always on conference deciding as to which topic to write about. We all have Unlimited download plans, so we thought “Why not try voice chat ? It’s free”. It requires only an investment of Rs.80 for the microphone. Now, we are always on Voice Chat. I have to say Voice chat is a very good feature provided by these messenger clients. Hope they come out with more things like this in the future.

Tags: gtlak, voice chat, yahoo messenger

What powers your favorite online game?

Ever wondered what powers your favorite online game? Yesterday i was playing PoxNora: Battlefield of the Immortals and was amused to find that it was powered by Java Web Start, the same technology that powers my P2P application. If you take a deeper dive inside this technology, you may find that Java Web Start has a Jnlp file type. Which means it run on Java Network Launching Protocol.

How easy was that to say? Do you have any clue as to what jnlp file type means or about Java Network Launching Protocol? What do you do when you get stuck up with new technological terminologies. Of course, a Google search. But more than 50% of the time you end on a wild goose chase on Google and are back to where you started. Its exactly under such circumstances that i stumbled upon www.backupanswers.com. In their own words, “Its a technical portal that aims at educating computer users about new technology.” Now, coming back to JNLP, i learnt that JNLP is an XML based technology for launching Java Executables on the web. Which means you can create an application at your end and serve it to millions of users around the world through their browser. So, in case you were wondering about web widgets, yes, they can also be powered by Java Web start and JNLP. This empowers applications to run on the browser and can be termed as the technology for the future.

Tags: java, java webstart, jnlp, online games

Easy xHTML Coding

I have designed a few websites in the past so I know that the looks of the website matters. When people come and visit a website, their first impression is based only on the visuals. You know what they say ” First Impression is the Best impression “. Only then come the features of the site. If the web site’s design looks crappy, people won’t even bother to go through it.

Making the website looks pleasing is a difficult task and you need to constantly design new logos, headers, buttons etc until you get it right and then integrate them in a  css file or an xhtml template. CSS is nothing but a cascading style sheet. It decides as to how things are displayed in various pages of the website. Xhtml is known as Extended hypertext markup language which conforms to the depth of html and also the XML syntax. Now, designing css and xhtml templates have become easier with html Markup.

html Markup allows you to convert .psd files, which is the default format for development or creation of pictures in Adobe Photoshop, into W3C validated html and xhtml documents instantly. These documents ready to be deployed on the web. You can send them the design and they send it back to you after converting the design to an xhtml document. This would prove to be a boon for web designers as it saves time. And saving time means saving money !

Tags: psd, psd to xhtml, xhtml